The New function of Oblique

Abstract

Orthogonality in architecture has shaped our perception of the built environment. Floors, walls, ceilings, and structural grids are typically perpendicular to each other, which affects people’s behavior inside heavily constrained three-dimensional boxes. This thesis challenges the widespread notion of orthogonality in manmade structures and explores opportunities in oblique composition. The oblique system was often overlooked due to its unfamiliarity compared to its orthogonal counterpart. From the factory buildings of the industrial era to contemporary supertall office buildings, planar walls, floors, and perpendicular connections between them consist of the basic structure of architecture. Conventional spatialization has a certain advantage regarding efficiency in space use and construction cost. However, adapting obliqueness opens up the possibility of a more active and dynamic space, as well as offering novel ways to connect spaces with different functions. Typical perpendicular compartmentalization hardly offers a physical and sensorial connection with each space. Oblique planes bring obscurity, intentionally blurring the defined boundary between spaces. Different inclinations and slanted walls define the space, which also imagines how people interact with this novel method of comprising the building. There is a discrepancy between what people expect (orthogonal system) and what people will engage in (oblique). Claude Parent and Paul Virilio’s experiment on oblique architecture opened the discourse for novel ways of defining space. This thesis uses Packard Plant, a well-known dilapidated industrial building in Detroit, as a testing ground to examine the contrast between the highly orthogonal and extreme oblique building orders. By doing so, the thesis expects to develop and play between traditional perception and visionary opportunity.